FAQ

FAQ – Frequently asked questions

With constantly over 400 models on stock, Vintage Portfolio has become one of the leading vintage watch dealerships in Central Europe. All of our models are examined by our vintage watchmaker team and confirmed as authentic. We offer a lifetime money-back warranty on authenticity, meaning that you will receive a full refund of your money in case we have made a mistake.
We try to keep vintage models as close to their original factory condition as possible. Secondary watch parts (such as dials, hands, crown and glass) may have been restored, replaced or freshly reproduced with attention to detail by our watchmaker team as needed. That being said, please read the condition report in the listings for these specifications of each watch.

Unless clearly otherwise communicated in the listing, our watches are fully inspected, cleaned, serviced and calibrated by our vintage watchmaker partners. Our watches are sold with a three year warranty on proper functioning, unless otherwise stated in the description (the condition report) of each listing. On 17th June 2022 we extended our warranty period from six months to three full years. This is quite a long warranty period and considered as industry leading in the vintage watch field.

We accept Returns, if the watch is not as described. We also accept returns if you don’t like the watch at all immediately after receiving it. You can choose whether you want to exchange it for a different watch or get your money back.

Vintage Portfolio lives from the turnover rate of its stock of watches. Short term reservations (for up to 2-3 days) are no problem and free of charge. Longer reservations are more difficult and only possible with a 10% (non-refundable) down payment. And of course its also possible that you order and pay for a watch in advance and we ship it later on at a date that suits you more. Sometimes customers ask to pick up their watches a few weeks later when they travel to Vienna after having ordered them. This is also no problem at all and a free service. Please contact Maximilian if you have any wish around this topic.

Shipping Charges (Express Courier Service – tracked and fully insured)
– Within Europe: 40 Euro and 1-3 working days
– World Wide: 80 Euro and 3-6 working days (we ship a lot to customers in the US and Singapore)
We recommend the Express Courier Service as its much more reliable than a regular post office parcel.
If you decide to buy multiple watches for long term investment purposes, shipping is only charged once.

On average it takes us two working days to get the watch shipped. (We need to get it out of the bank vault, do a last check on proper function, pack it carefully and professionally and take it to the courier company. After the watch is shipped, you will automatically receive a tracking link so you can follow your parcel.)

On average it takes us two working days to get the watch shipped. (We need to get it out of the bank vault, do a last check on proper function, pack it carefully and professionally and take it to the courier company. After the watch is shipped, you will automatically receive a tracking link so you can follow your parcel.)

You can reach out to us (even on weekends) via email at maximilian@vintage-portfolio.com

If you have not received a reply within 48 hours please check your spam folder (sometimes emails get caught there) and reach out to us via phone at 0043 664 430 5816

You can place the order directly through the checkout system of our website (by pressing the green “buy button” to the right of the watch pictures). This checkout takes usually only 3-5 minutes and no registration (and also no login) is needed. You can choose between bank transfer, credit card (Master Card and Visa), paypal (+3.5%) or a cash payment when meeting personally in Vienna as payment options through this website checkout.
Some customers prefer to pay through bank transfer (bank wire) by simply exchanging bank and address details via email. This is still possible as it was our first and only payment option when we started the company in 2013. Ironically, its still the most used.

– The watch itsself (as visible on the pictures, described in the listing)
– an official company invoice (on which our warranties are stated)
– a Vintage Portfolio User Manual to your watch (please read it)
– and a Vintage Portfolio Watch Box. (These watch travel boxes are great to take two of your watches with you while travelling – so you can switch watches even while being abroad.)

Upon request and with a scheduled appointment, watches can be viewed in person in downtown Vienna, Austria. All of our watches are kept in external bank vaults, outside of our office. For security reasons, we can show you only a few watches at the same time.

Please expect small discounts for single watch purchases. We offer significant discounts to customers that buy 5 to 20 pieces at once for investment purposes. We also have resellers as customers from Northern Europe (especially London) that buy their full stock from us because of the competitive price/value ratio we can offer as an online shop. (If even other dealers buy from you, that means that your prices are good.)

Our watch services are performed by professional watchmakers and involve cleaning and oiling of moving parts and replacement of parts that have suffered wear and tear. For a movement service we use only authentic replacement parts ordered from the manufacturer -for instance Omega – directly. Thereafter the watch is calibrated by our watchmaker to make sure it keeps time well for its future adventures.

The dial conditions of our watches are stated in the condition report for each listing. Our refurbished dials have been restored with good care using state-of-the-art reprinting and refurbishment techniques. In our opinion, a dial refurbishment usually increases the value of watches worth less than 2500 Euro, as the refurbishment costs invested (up to 500 Euros per dial) raise the overall value of the watch. For watches above 2500 Euro, the dial is usually seen as a piece of art beside all other watch parts and the dial condition is important, as the collectors’ market (not so much the mass market) pays a premium for collector-grade dials “untouched by human hands”. The mass market, in our opinion, prefers refurbished and completely patina-free dials, as they are more visually appealing and are more suitable for daily wear. Well refurbished dials are often also easier to resell than dials covered with (most often) an ugly patina, especially on the mass market. Patinas form from exposure to sunlight and changes in temperature and humidity over the lifetime of a watch. A well executed refurbished dial can save a watch from otherwise being butchered or discarded.

All of our watches are suitable for daily use. Wear them with confidence and pride!

Vintage watches are generally only water resistance to a level that they will survive a few drops of water, but not more. This means that you can walk through light rain or carefully wash your hands with them, but they not suited for any water activities. No showering, no carwash, nothing that exposes the watch to high humidity. Before a handwash, we recommend to pull the watch up the sleeve of your arm to spread the distance between the water stream and the watch. Also activities where the watch is exposed to heavy vibrations to your wrist will harm the watch over time (motorcycle riding, riding a bike over cobblestone). The watch may survive all of the above once or twice by luck, but these activities are not recommended. Particularly vintage plexiglas models are only water resistant in terms of they will (or better: may) survive a few drops of water. Please note, that we cant offer any warranty on waterproofness, even if a water-pressure test is sold along with the watch as waterproofness is only a momentary state. In short: We dont not recommend to expose any watch to any kind water. Its simply not worth the risk.

Contact us via email, describe your issue and we will help as soon as possible and to the best of our abilities. Until now, we never left a customer behind and have no intention in changing this attitude in future. (Before you get in tough please dont forget to actually read the english “single page” user manual for your watch which will be inside the parcel, right beside the company invoice. Most questions will be already answered this way.)

All of our watches are kept in external bank vaults, outside of our office. (We do not keep watches in our office and private homes.)

We have received over 350 customer feedbacks so far, through direct purchases, which can be viewed here:
https://www.vintage-portfolio.com/referenzen/
and here are over hundred chrono24 reviews with an overall rating of 4.8 out of 5 possible stars. We are listed there as a “Trusted Seller”.
https://www.chrono24.co.uk/dealer/checkout-rating.htm?customerId=16412